Dec 2009

Fundamental Baptist Publishing Ministry of David Cloud | Jan 2010 | Nov 2009

Friday Church News Notes

Dec/25/09 06:11

December 25, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 52

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The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.

CANADA PASTOR CLEARED OF “HATE CRIME” AFTER SEVEN YEARS OF HARASSMENT (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After seven years of harassment by the Human Rights Commission of Alberta, youth pastor Stephen Boissoin has been cleared of hate crimes against homosexuals by a civil judge (“Canadian Pastor Cleared,” Christian.org.uk, Dec. 8, 2009). As we first reported in Friday Church News Notes in September 2005, Boissoin was called before the Human Rights Commission for writing about the immorality and dangers of homosexuality. This appeared in a letter to the editor that was published in the Red Deer Advocate on June 17, 2002. Boissoin rightly lamented that “children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.” A civil rights complaint was filed by homosexual activist Darren Lund, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Though threatened with a large fine, Boissoin said that he would not pay it nor would he apologize for what he wrote, even if he had to go to prison. He has stood by his convictions through the ordeal. In 2008, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal found Boissoin guilty of hate crimes. It banned him from expressing his views on homosexuality “in newspapers, by e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet,” ordered him to pay $7,000 for “damages for pain and suffering,” and demanded that he apologize to Lund. We are pleased that Justice Earl Wilson has overturned this totalitarian-style ruling, having determined that Boissoin’s letter does not constitute a hate crime. He also said that Lori Andreachuk, the civil rights lawyer that issued the ruling under the auspices of the Human Rights Tribunal, made many errors in her decision and had no power to impose a speech ban on Mr. Boissoin.

Does Jesus Groove to Rock Music

Dec/22/09 20:51 Filed in: Music

Republished December 23, 2009 (first published July 3, 2000) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

The July 2000 issue of Charisma, the very influential Charismatic publication, has an article exhorting the readers to “Get in the Groove.” The author, J. Lee Grady, mocks traditional Christian music as “dirge-like” and “lily-white” and something only for “grandmothers.” He goes on to make the pretentious claim that worship music in Heaven will feature “a dozen Hammond-B3 organs and a procession of hip-hop [rap] dancers.” Not content with this brazen claim, Grady tells us that Jesus Christ “loves all music--even the funkiest” and that Jesus Christ enjoys dancing with the angels and “grooving to the sound of Christian R&B [rhythm and blues] pumped out of a boom box.”

How does Grady know this? The simple and frightful fact is that he knows no such thing. He is preaching a false christ, and the Contemporary Christian Music movement in general is preaching much the same thing. They tell us that Jesus Christ is not separated from the world, that He loves every sort of music in this wicked world, that He boogies to rock and roll, that He is pleased when His people hip hop around on a stage after the fashion of modern rappers.

Light Rock: The Devil's Chum

Dec/22/09 07:34 Filed in: Music

Republished December 22, 2009 (first published June 7, 1998) (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

The following is an excerpt from a seminar on rock music entitled "Easy on the Ears, Hard on the Soul," by David Benoit (Glory Ministries, Charlotte, North Carolina) --

You know, I talk about heavy metal rock 'n' roll and I make a few people mad. But then when I show a slide of these guys [New Kids on the Block] I make people really mad. But let me stop right here. Before you get really mad at me, let me ask you a question. Why is it that anger comes on when I put these guys up? I know, you're sitting there going, "I can't believe this guy's going to say anything's wrong with these guys."

You know, last year I went to the Bahamas. And I went fishing for shark. Now to fish for shark--do you know how they do that? Read More...

Friday Church News Notes

Dec/18/09 05:39

December 18, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 51

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ORAL ROBERTS DIES, PROVING THAT HIS TEACHING WAS FALSE (Friday Church News Notes, December 18, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Famous Pentecostal “healing evangelist” Oral Roberts died of pneumonia on December 15 at age 91. This act proved that his teaching was false, as he often said that it is God’s will to heal every sickness. For example, the September 1976 issue of Abundant Life magazine contained an article entitled, “Why I Know that God Wants to Heal You.” Roberts wrote, “Sickness is part of the curse and Jesus came to destroy the curse. He suffered in our stead because he did not want us to suffer disease. He took our specific diseases and infirmities upon his own sinless, perfect body in complete payment for the penalty of sin,” and, “Sickness is not part of God’s plan and not devised by God’s will.” Roberts even suggested that preachers who pray for God to heal, “If it be thy will,” should be sued for “theological malpractice.” When he breathed his last, Roberts demonstrated with great finality that he was a false teacher. No one dies of healthiness!

Unplug the Family From Hollywood

Dec/16/09 19:16 Filed in: Family

December 17, 2009 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

“Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing” (Deuteronomy 7:26).

One of the wisest things parents can do today is throw out the television altogether, except for watching educational programs and perhaps some carefully selected movies, and the selection of the latter will be slim indeed.

In looking back on my childhood growing up in a Baptist church, attending services at least three times a week, the two major influences that stole my heart for the world were public school friendships and television programs. We got a television when I was about eight years old (1957), and though the programs were nothing like they are today, they certainly did not encourage me spiritually. We got our television about a year after Elvis appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. I remember that by the time I reached junior high school, I did everything I could to stay home on Sunday nights, because that was when the most exciting programs of the week were on, such as the Disney Hour and The Ed Sullivan Show and the Dinah Shore program (“See the USA in your Chevrolet”). I don’t remember if I was home that Sunday night in 1964 when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, but I could have been. I was in high school and about that time my parents were having a lot of problems and had pretty much given up on trying to keep me in church. I had already started drinking and carousing around with my buddies every weekend. There is no doubt that television and movies fed my carnal imagination in a way that nothing else could have and, together with rock & roll, inflamed me with a passion for the things of the world.

Billy Graham's Sad Disobedience to the Word of God

Dec/16/09 06:39 Filed in: Evangelicalism | Apostasy

Republished December 16, 2009 (first published in February 1997) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) –

“And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord” (2 Chronicles 19:2).

I have been warning about Billy Graham’s compromise for decades, and it is a very difficult thing to do. He is one of the most popular men in the world. He is universally acclaimed as a wonderful Christian and a great evangelist. When you say something critical of Billy Graham, many people consider it equal to blasphemy against Almighty God!

The Lord knows, if I thought I could fulfill my obligations before God as a preacher of His Word and still keep my mouth shut about the Billy Grahams of our day, I would do it in a heartbeat! I am convinced that this is not possible, though, and by God’s grace I would rather please Him than man.

In February 1997, I published an article in O Timothy magazine about Jerry Falwell’s support of Billy Graham. We noted that a watershed of sorts had occurred at Falwell’s Liberty University, in that the 1997 commencement speaker was Dr. Billy Graham, the foremost spokesman for the New Evangelical movement. The announcement in the National Liberty Journal stated:

“It is befitting that Dr. Graham will speak at Liberty’s 1997 Commencement, since his grandson, William Franklin (Will) Graham IV, will be among the graduating seniors. (Another grandson, Roy Graham, is a freshman at Liberty.) ... Dr. Falwell said, ‘This will be Dr. Graham’s first visit to Liberty. THIS COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS WILL NO DOUBT BE REMEMBERED HISTORICALLY IN THE NEXT CENTURY AS ONE OF LIBERTY’S HIGH DAYS. I am grateful that Dr. Graham is taking time from his busy schedule to grace us with his presence” (emphasis added) (National Liberty Journal, December 1996, pp. 1, 17). Read More...

Ten Tips for Daily Bible Reading

Dec/15/09 07:42 Filed in: Encouragement | Doctrine | Bible

One of the most important habits to develop in the Christian life is that of daily Bible reading.

It is the Word of God that has the power to sanctify the believer and build him up in Christ. It imparts conviction, enlightenment, spiritual strength, faith, wisdom, repentance. Consider the following Scriptures:

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psalms 1:1-3).

“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psalms 119:9). Read More...

Friday Church News Notes

Dec/11/09 08:12

December 11, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 50

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BEWARE OF SCIENCE FICTION (Friday Church News Notes, December 11, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Science fiction takes the reader into a strange world without God. Oh, there might be “a god,” a “force,” but it is definitely not the God of the Bible, and the prominent names in this field are atheists. Take CARL SAGAN, for example. His best-selling sci-fi novel Contact was made into a movie. Sagan was one of the high priests of atheistic evolution. In his novel he has the main character debating two preachers and saying, “There is no compelling evidence that God exists.” In 1997 Sagan said, “I share the view of a hero of mine, Albert Einstein: ‘I cannot conceive of a god who rewards and punishes his creatures or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I--nor would I want to--conceive of an individual that survives his physical death. Let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egotism, cherish such thoughts’” (Parade, March 10, 1997). Consider another prominent name in Sci-Fi, ISAAC ASIMOV. In a 1982 interview he said, “Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time” (Paul Kurtz, “An Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible,” Free Inquiry, Spring 1982, p. 9). Consider ROBERT HEINLEIN, called “the dean of science fiction writers.” He rejected the Bible and promoted “free sex.” His book “Stranger in a Strange Land” is considered “the unofficial bible of the hippie movement.” Heinlein was a nudist and practiced “polyandry.” He promoted agnosticism in his sci-fi books. Consider ARTHUR CLARKE, author of many sci-fi works, including 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke, who was probably a homosexual, promoted evolutionary pantheism. He told a Sri Lankan newspaper, “I don’t believe in God or an afterlife” (“Life Beyond 2001: Exclusive Interview with Arthur C. Clarke,” The Island, Dec. 20, 2000). In the instructions he left for his funeral in March 2008 he said, “Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral.” Consider KURT VONNEGUT. He was an atheist, and as an honorary president of the American Humanist Association he subscribed to its code which “does not accept supernatural views of reality.” Consider GENE RODDENBERRY, creator of Star Trek. He was an agnostic and humanist who envisioned a world in which “everyone is an atheist and better for it” (Brannon Braga, “Every Religion Has a Mythology,” International Atheist Conference, June 24, 2006). Science fiction is intimately associated with Darwinian evolution. Sagan and Asimov, for example, were prominent evolutionary scientists. Sci-fi arose in the late 19th and early 20th century as a product of an evolutionary worldview that denies the Almighty Creator. In fact, evolution IS the pre-eminent science fiction. Beware!

Do We Have the "Right to Die"?

Dec/10/09 05:22 Filed in: Doctrine

In the last three decades we have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of headlines focusing on the “right-to-die” or euthanasia issue. Consider just a few of these:

* In 1985, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that all life-sustaining medical treatment can be withheld from terminally ill patients, whether incompetent or competent. In that ruling the court included feeding tubes as “medical treatment.”

* In 1985, a Virginia woman who killed her cancer-ridden husband with an ice pick was sentenced merely to two years’ probation and psychiatric treatment.

* The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in 1986 to allow a woman to stop the feeding of her comatose husband.

* In 1987, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously that an alert, mentally competent but dying woman, suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease, a fatal nerve disorder, should have been allowed to order her respirator disconnected. The woman had died a few days before her case reached the Court. The same court ruled to allow a man to remove the feeding tube from his 32-year-old wife. Read More...

Knowing God's Will

Dec/08/09 12:17 Filed in: Encouragement | Doctrine

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness” (Romans 12:1-8).

We see here that God has a great work in this world and He has called on His people to participate. There is a perfect will of God for each believer. If you are saved, you are called.

We see that the will of God must be proven. Salvation is a gift but God’s will is a prize to be sought.

Friday Church News Notes

Dec/04/09 06:51

December 4, 2009, Volume 10, Issue 49

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THE CLIMATE CHANGE MAFIA EXPOSED (Friday Church News Notes, December 4, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Climate Change: The Worst Scientific Scandal of Our Generation,” by Christopher Booker, The Telegraph, Nov. 28, 2009: “A week after my colleague James Delingpole, on his Telegraph blog, coined the term ‘Climategate’ to describe the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, Google was showing that the word now appears across the internet more than nine million times. ... The reason why even the Guardian’s George Monbiot has expressed total shock and dismay at the picture revealed by the documents is that their authors are not just any old bunch of academics. What we are looking at here is the small group of scientists who have for years been more influential in driving the worldwide alarm over global warming than any others, not least through the role they play at the heart of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Professor Philip Jones, the CRU's director, is in charge of the two key sets of data used by the IPCC to draw up its reports. ... his global temperature record is the most important of the four sets of temperature data on which the IPCC and governments rely--not least for their predictions that the world will warm to catastrophic levels unless trillions of dollars are spent to avert it. Dr Jones is also a key part of the closely knit group of American and British scientists responsible for promoting that picture of world temperatures conveyed by Michael Mann's ‘hockey stick’ graph which 10 years ago turned climate history on its head by showing that, after 1,000 years of decline, global temperatures have recently shot up to their highest level in recorded history. ... The senders and recipients of the leaked CRU emails constitute a cast list of the IPCC’s scientific elite ... There are three threads in particular in the leaked documents which have sent a shock wave through informed observers across the world. Perhaps the most obvious ... is the highly disturbing series of emails which show how Dr Jones and his colleagues have for years been discussing the devious tactics whereby they could avoid releasing their data to outsiders under freedom of information laws. ... The second and most shocking revelation of the leaked documents is how they show the scientists trying to manipulate data through their tortuous computer programmes, always to point in only the one desired direction--to lower past temperatures and to ‘adjust’ recent temperatures upwards, in order to convey the impression of an accelerated warming. ... The third shocking revelation of these documents is the ruthless way in which these academics have been determined to silence any expert questioning of the findings they have arrived at by such dubious methods--not just by refusing to disclose their basic data but by discrediting and freezing out any scientific journal which dares to publish their critics’ work.”

The Disney Gospel

Dec/03/09 09:18 Filed in: Family

Republished December 3, 2009 (first published September 9, 2004) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

The author of a new book entitled “The Gospel According to Disney” observes that Walt Disney preached a religious message through his cartoon characters, a message that “faith is an essential element--faith in yourself and, even more, faith in something greater than yourself, even if it is some vague, nonsectarian higher power” (Mark Pinsky, “Finding faith in the house of the mouse,” The Washington Post, Aug. 14, p. B7).

Disney’s animated classics are filled with pagan images and things strongly denounced by the Scriptures, such as witches and demons, sorcerers and spells, genies and goblins. Like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, the Disney cartoons present the damnable concept that there is good and bad magic. Disney often depicts witches and sorcerers as likeable heroes. Read More...

Beware of Homeopathy

Dec/01/09 22:06 Filed in: New Age Movement

A man recently wrote the following:

“We were introduced to homeopathy recently by some folks in our church. We go to an independent fundamental Baptist church and some of the ladies in the church introduced my wife to this approach to medicine. It sounded too good to be true. My wife and I went to a meeting recently when the person presented homeopathy. She didn’t go into the occult side of things but did mention a couple times about an ‘energy.’ We were then approached by a brother in our church who said they heard that the idea of homeopathy was spreading quickly through the church ladies and warned me against this approach to medicine. He gave me an article to read from Logos which blasted homeopathy as occultic. Other articles, written by evangelicals, said it was a good approach to medicine and wasn’t occultic. So we are a little confused.”

Homeopathy is definitely associated with occultic principles. (We would note that the terms “homeopathy” and “naturopathy” are sometimes used interchangeably, but we are using them according to their official meanings.)

The man who wrote to us said, “She didn’t go into the occult side of things but did mention a couple of times about an “energy.” That is the occult side of things! Traditional medicine does not have a mystical energy!

Illustration above:

German physician Samuel Hahnemann was the founder of homeopathy. A vitalist, Dr Hahnemann believed that disease and disorder were triggered when the "vital force dominates the human body in an unopposed and dynamic way". Homeopathic healing methods are inspired by the so-called law of similars: Similia similibus curantur ["like cures like"]. Homeopaths claim that the cause of a disease-like sign or symptom in a healthy body is itself capable of curing the sign or symptom. This notion has ancient historical antecedents but is medically unsupported. Prudently, Hahnemann demanded payment of his fees in advance. from www.general-anaesthesia.com

The Independent Baptist Mutual Admiration Society of Compromise

Dec/01/09 09:14 Filed in: Independent Baptist

I am deeply concerned about the rapidly-growing compromise among independent Baptists. After I was saved in 1973 I didn’t know where to go to church. I was led to Christ by a Pentecostal man who went on his way the next day, and I have never seen him again. I began to study the Bible diligently, visit churches, listen to Christian radio, and read books, seeking God’s will about church membership. I knew that I wasn’t going back to the Southern Baptist Convention that I had grown up in, because they simply didn’t take the Bible seriously. There was no separation, no discipline, no call for sold-out discipleship.

After a short time I found a little independent Baptist church in Bartow, Florida (now defunct) and was convinced that God led me there. Excited that they seemed to take the Bible seriously and were even a bit “fanatical” about it, I joined the church. Several months later I attended Tennessee Temple Bible School and was introduced to the wide world of independent Baptists. In those days Temple stood pretty much at the center of the movement, and Lee Roberson was highly regarded in most of the independent Baptist circles. We had dozens of big name IB speakers each year. I loved the preaching and grew in the Lord, though I was concerned even then with the biblical shallowness, the unscriptural exaltation of man, and the “quick prayerism” evangelism methodology.